Yongguk stood frozen in the center of the room after Luhan left. He had nothing to say. He always knew that Luhan was wiser than his age, especially after everything he had been through, he just never knew that it'd bite him in the .

He spent months, months, meticulously planning a way to take Ryu down. It was perfected to a tee and he even made a day by day schedule for when they'd make a move and when they'd act defensively. He spent days without sleep because he had to wait until Eun Ah was knocked out before he creeped out to his study and spend hours pouring over maps and records, trying to find Ryu's weakness.

And now he was considering throwing it all away just to get back to her.

What would it feel like to be able to touch her again? To just be around her like normal.

He couldn’t even fathom it. He just wanted to make everything right, but it was so hard when he was so conflicted with himself. He missed her more than anything but the aftermath scared him, Luhan was right. He was terrified about seeing her again. He was terrified to see the love of his life with hatred burning in her eyes when she saw him but he was also terrified for brining her into the line of fire alongside him. He didn't want her to get hurt because of him, but it according to Himchan and Luhan, he had been doing it all this time.  

But it would be better than having to stay away from her.

Could he do it? Maybe it was time to go home.

It could be possible to bring her back if he really wanted to. It would be hard and risky, but if he pulled the right strings, he'd be able to.

But it was still dangerous.

She would learn about the pain he dealt with and the how he taunted Ryu just to protect her, how he basically called him out.

That was one of his issues with telling her the truth. There was only outcome of his war with Ryu.

 Either Ryu died or he did.

There was no way that both of them would be able to get out of it alive, one of them had to die for the other to survive and even with all the planning, it was still 50/50.

Ryu was getting closer to falling off the edge, which meant that he was a loose cannon, he was unpredictable which made him scarier than he was before. All he did was expose his and his partner's identity to Ryu and everything was already falling into place. Yongguk was finally seeing cracks in Ryu's behaviour. Ryu was breaking and he was so close.

Yongguk knew that more than anyone.

He looked down on his coffee table and saw the card that he flipped over when Luhan had come over. It was slipped under the door and when he opened the envelope, he recognized the cardstock.

DRC.

Not another one.

He didn't know which was more daunting: the fact that Ryu seemed to know where he lived, or the fact that he hadn't done anything about it.

He stared at the familiar blank ink.

Do you want to know your partner's real identity? Come to alley behind your fiancée's workplace at midnight and you'll learn the truth.

Yongguk wasn't stupid, he knew that it must be some sort of trap and that it had to be a bigger coincidence that today was also the day that Himchan said Eun Ah was going back to work, but he knew he had to go.

He had to see what Ryu wanted and make sure that he wasn't going to try to do anything to Eun Ah on her first day back.

If Ryu wanted to kill him, he wouldn't have sent him a note with his gang symbol on it and expect him to get away with it. This wasn't a hit on him, this was something more.

Ryu was planning something and meeting him was the only way that Yongguk could get one step ahead of him.

-----

"Alright, I'll see you later, but remember you owe me."

That was the last thing Kris had said to her before the two of them went their separate ways. She didn't what he meant or what favour she owed him, but she was still grateful that he did her favour.

Eun Ah could still see Kris's teasing smile as she walked into Halmoni's store. It was strange that Kris was so light hearted with her and it made her wonder if when the two of them went back to their friendly relationship. She felt strange about his situation with Alice, but it still felt like a weird weight off her chest when Kris smiled.

For a second it made her believe that everything was okay, even though she knew it wasn't true.

But that didn't change the fact that she was unsettled over the fact that whatever file he brought her wasn't of the Jin Ho she asked for.  She figured that he just found the wrong person since she didn't really give me a lot of info to start off with. He must've made a mistake, but he seemed so confident that she didn't know what to think.

She was too nervous to tell Kris that he was wrong because then she'd have to explain that the man she was looking for looked exactly like Yongguk.  

She didn't need even more people thinking that she was crazy.

She pulled open the door and it felt like her was hit in the face with nostalgia. It had been forever since she worked there since Halmoni told her to take off as much time as she needed. After so long, she finally decided to go back and after arguing with Himchan, she finally convinced him that she was ready to work and that this was good for her.

"Himchan said you'd be coming in." Eun Ah looked up and smiled at Halmoni who stared softly back at her. She knew that the older woman wanted to fuss around her and ask her how she was doing, but Eun Ah was glad that she was giving her some space.

She still wasn't used to being around other people who knew her situation and as much as she loved Halmoni, she wasn't ready for a psychoanalysis.

"You dyed you hair." Eun Ah said as she hugged the woman.

Halmoni grinned and followed Eun Ah too the back, she wanted to do her best to treat the girl as normally as possible. When she learned that her husband had passed away Halmoni had to fight the urge to run over to Eun Ah's house. She was worried that the girl was going to go through a worse version of what happened with her parents.

So she was thrilled to see the girl smiling and slightly livelier.

It was nice.

"Well since the hot girl at the store stopped coming in, I had to jump at the chance." She said cheekily, watching Eun Ah tie her apron.

Eun Ah snorted and gave Halmoni a look. "Well the hot one's back so keep it in your pants, granny."

Halmoni's jaw hung open before she started beating Eun Ah with a rolled up towel. "You disrespectful little brat, I'm glad to see that your loud mouth is still working."

Eun Ah cackled and dodged the attacks before grabbing her notepad. "Okay! OKAY! I give up! Let me go!"

Halmoni huffed before her scowl melted into a small smile, "I missed you Eun Ah. I'm glad your back. You've always been a fighter and you are one now. I'm so proud of you."

Eun Ah's cheeky smile fell and changed into a strained one, "Thank you."

"You're strong and you'll make it through this." She said while patting the girl's hair.

Eun Ah's smile stayed stiff as she looked at the ground, itching to leave the dramatic air and get to work. Halmoni sighed and smacked her back.

"Well, don't just stand there, I'm paying you to work, go and work that pretty smile and make me some money."

-----

Daehyun reached for Yongmi but the girl just slapped his hand away and glared at him, her fingers curled into fists and her face a blazing red.

"Yongmi." He rasped out.

"You lied to me. You all lied to me this whole time." Her body was shaking and tears filled her eyes.  

Daehyun looked at her guiltily as he played with his fingers. He had finally broken the news to her, explaining everything that had transpired in detailed and answering each of her questions as honestly as he could.

"I know, I wanted to tell you, I begged Himchan, but he thought that  your reaction would be more believable if you didn't know until you moved back to our apartment. It was wrong, I know and it ate me up inside which is why I finally got him to  let me tell you now."

Yongmi bit her lip when she saw sadness and fear in Daehyun's eyes. He didn't have a choice, she knew it and she knew how demanding Himchan could be.

Daehyun was always looking out for her. She had learned enough to trust him and to know that even though she could handle herself, he'd always have her best intentions at heart.

She shifted closer to him and looked away from his eyes, "So he's alive? He's really alive? He's okay?"

Daehyun felt his heart clench, but he was done keeping secrets from her. They all were. Not just her but Eun Ah too. "He's a little beat up but he's fine. He wasn't in the car."

"I can't believe this. So you're telling me that Eun Ah thinks he's dead when he's perfectly fine? She's been drinking herself under the table and dipping into a ing depression because of a stupid plan!?"

"She stopped." Daehyun said lamely.

"And now she's spending time with Kris and oh my god,